Stewart Back In Oakland, Gives Award

Published 4:00 am, Monday, April 9, 2001

Despite battling a vicious cold, Stewart was there last Friday to present manager Art Howe with the Dave Stewart Award recognizing Howe's good works in the community. But Howe wasn't the only one to get a presentation from Stewart.

He might work for the Toronto Blue Jays now, but he is an indelible part of A's history. Stewart won 107 games between 1987 and 1992 as the A's took four division titles, three AL pennants and a World Series.

"This will always be home to me. No matter what the exterior structure is of this ballpark, I did make a career here," Stewart said between sniffles. "The fans never forget, and it was and will always be something special."

Now Stewart is trying make a career in another way, and while he's having a good time, he's not where he wants to be. Or thought he would be.

"The way I see it is, I should be knocking right on the door as far as being a general manager is concerned," Stewart said. "When you think about it, I came into this part of the business in August of '95. . . . The difficulty is you're just waiting to get a position."

But Stewart won't whine about his fate, he doesn't blame prejudice, shortsightedness or circumstance. He just does his job, assistant general manager and director of player personnel, and waits for his chance.

"I look more at it as a situation that's going to happen, it's just a matter of when," Stewart said. "Until then, I have more than enough rewarding moments to make up for the frustrating ones."

Stewart was an outspoken advocate of the players' union when he was pitching. Now he is, theoretically at least, aligned with the opposition in the looming confrontation that threatens to shut baseball down next year.

"I think being a labor guy, I guess you never are really against it (the union)," he said. "My belief is that from this side of the business, I can try and get close to what's going on. I think I have a better understanding of what's going on. I think I can use those things to my advantage to try to smooth things through."

Stewart believes that both sides will come to their senses and an interruption will be avoided. "I think that in light of all the stuff that happened in '94, some lessons were learned on both sides," he said. "I would find it very hard to believe we are going to have a work stoppage."

Not that Stewart thinks some things aren't in need of adjustment. And he would love to be in a position to help. "Salaries are a little bit out of the whack, but at the same time I also think as a general manager and a former player, judging and evaluating talent becomes a little easier for me than most guys. That's how salaries get to the point they are. You've got nonexperts bidding for talent on the field.

"Billy (Beane) is a pretty good example of a guy that's played and does a very good job with what's given to him. . . . You don't find him paying a lot of money for guys that aren't worth the dollar."

The other major baseball topic these days is the so-called high strike, which umpires are under orders to recognize. Stewart feels it came along a few years too late. "From what I've seen so far, it's called enough that you know it's there, but really it's not that noticeable," he said. "I think I would have struck out more than 200 more than once in my career. I pitched up there anyway, I just never got that pitch."